ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Brandon Glasco was the “underling” of a man under investigation by police for drug trafficking, prosecutor Lloyd Strickland said Wednesday, and was almost like a teenage little brother, eager to please Dustin Etheridge, who mentored him and told him he’d have an opportunity to “move up” in the organization.
Glasco was willing to do whatever was asked of him, Strickland said. It landed him “a whisker” away from participating in murder.
Strickland made the submission at the sentencing hearing for Glasco and John Squires, who have both been convicted of participating in a plot spearheaded by Etheridge to murder Bradley Summers two years ago.
Police were investigating Etheridge, whose matter is being dealt with separately, for drug crimes when they learned he and some his associates were planning to kill Summers. Through wiretaps, hidden recording devices and other methods, investigators say they learned Etheridge and his cohorts had acquired a gun and a cheap used car and were going to carry out their plan the evening of May 16, 2018.
Police spent the day tracking Etheridge before swarming the car he was driving in the centre area of St. John’s minutes before 10 p.m. Summers was at an acquaintance’s house on the same street.
Squires was in the car with Etheridge, and police forced both of them out. Squires told them he was carrying a loaded handgun in the front of his pants.
Glasco and another man — who was eventually cleared of the murder conspiracy charge — were arrested months later.
Justice Robert Stack found Glasco guilty of participating in the murder plot, luring Summers to the location where he was to be killed. He had also been facing weapons charges that were withdrawn by the Crown after trial.
“I think the most aggravating circumstance is the fact that Mr. Glasco did everything required of him as part of this conspiracy,” Strickland told Stack Thursday. “He didn’t just plan it. He did everything he was required to do, and that included arranging for Mr. Summers to be at a certain place and to notify Mr. Etheridge that Mr. Summers was there. In reality, Mr. Glasco came within a whisker to being a party to a murder, but for the fact that he was being wiretapped.”
Strickland argued for a jail term of five years for Glasco. Defence lawyer Tony St. George argued that a four-year sentence would be more appropriate for his client, whom he said is a 21-year-old father of two with a supportive family and no prior criminal record. Glasco was a “relatively unsophisticated teenager” at the time he helped plan the murder, St. George said.
“Not to take away from his involvement in it, but Mr. Glasco appears to have been swept up in something much greater than his participation in it.
“He wants to put it behind him and move on with his life with his family in the best way one can with a criminal record.”
Squires appeared at the sentencing hearing by video from the province’s west coast correctional facility, though his lawyer, Derek Hogan, was present in the courtroom. Squires has been convicted of firearms offences as well as murder conspiracy, and Hogan argued for a jail term of seven years minus time served, with credit for 1.5 days for every day he has spent on remand. Hogan referred to three hopeful letters presented on Squires’ behalf from a prison official, a psychologist at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary and a representative of Turnings, an organization that provides community reintegration support to offenders.
Squires briefly addressed the court, saying, “I’d like to start by apologizing to the public and apologizing to my family. I can do better and I’d like to move on with my life.”
Strickland, who suggested eight years in jail would be more appropriate for Squires, pointed out Squires had been carrying a loaded gun when he was arrested.
“I would note how close they came to effecting their plan, or at least attempting to kill Mr. Summers,” he said.
Stack will deliver his sentencing decision for Squires and Glasco on Oct. 6.
